farming and teaching combined. He
became owner of forty acres of land near Brighton, but
as it was nearly all timber and poor soil, he sold it
for a fair price in gold, and with the proceeds
started on a further quest for the land of milk and
honey. He journeyed across the Hawkeye State with a
team, in the month of February, and not finding
anything to suit him within its limits, crossed the
Missouri River at Kenosha about the 20th of March,
1856. This place was then a hamlet of five or six log
houses.
From Kenosha Mr. Flower was
accompanied on his journey by Durell Reed, then a lad
sixteen years of age. They passed through the present
town of Mt. Pleasant, where a few adventurous settlers
had located, and which was ten miles west of Kenosha.
No settlers had ventured beyond this point. They
finally arrived at the falls of Weeping Water, known
in the Indian language as "Keet-sotee-te-cutt," the
water which cries. This section of country greatly
pleased the travelers, especially Mr. Flower, and he
staked out a claim, resolving to settle there.
Cass County at this time had not
been subjected to the Government survey. Mr. Flower
commenced the building of a log house near the falls,
and the site of that humble dwelling was four rods
west of the west end of I street, north of the coal
shutes of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, as it now
stands. The house later was used for a dwelling,
church, school and stable, and greatly to the regret
of the present generation was torn down in 1880, by
Dr. M. M. Butler, the present owner of the
property.
Mr. Flower and his young companion
had been but a week in their new quarters when the
Indians made a raid upon them, stealing their horses
and taking them to their camp near the present town of
Waverly. Mr. Flower and a new comer, Mr. Millagan,
followed in hot pursuit on foot. The prairie had
recently been burned, and the ground was black and
destitute of vegetation. The melted snow and recent
rains had rendered the ground soft, so that they could
easily track the marauders, and finally overtook them
in the neighborhood of what is now Waverly.
The pursuers followed them down the
stream of Callahan Creek, in hopes of finding a
sheltered nook wherein they could encamp for the
night. Their surprise and joy may be imagined when
they suddenly came upon a camp of Government land
surveyors, about sixteen in number, who invited them
to partake of their fare, and to whom they related the
story of their wrongs.
In the morning the majority of these
men volunteered to go with Mr. Flower and Mr. Milligan
to the Indian village, about ten miles distant. The
Indians had entered into a treaty with the Government,
and considered the surveyors its emissaries. Not
wishing to be caught in violation of their treaty,
when they saw the company coming over the top of the
ridge, they whipped Mr. Flower's horses out of their
camp, so as not to be caught in possession of stolen
horses. This ended the first Indian trouble. Mr.
Flower returned to his claim, and went to work on his
house, having it in comfortable condition when his
wife and five children arrived with a small party of
friends, about the 6th of May. He then began breaking
the ground, and put in a small crop, from which he
obtained a very good harvest, under the
circumstances.
On the 1st of July, that year, there
occurred an "Indian scare," and about 150 men repaired
to Weeping Water, from Plattsmouth, Nebraska City and
Omaha, to protect the settlers. They brought a cannon
from Omaha, and in a reconnoitre one Indian was
captured, and five men occupied themselves in guarding
him in an uncompleted log house. During the evening
the Indian made complaint of being "heap sick," and a
number of them were sent out with him to walk him
around in the fresh air. They halted near a small oak
shrub, the Indian having a buffalo robe over his
shoulder. Their surprise may be imagined when after
watching the savage half an hour or more they went up
to shake him, and give him to understand it was time
for him to return to the house, they found no Indian,
nothing but a buffalo robe over a scrub-oak bush. As
they had treated him well, and there were no other
Indians in the vicinity, the men disbanded and
returned to their various places.
Under the claims law then extant Mr.
Flower held two 160-acre tracts, one being a part of
the western portion of the present city of Weeping
Water, the other was subsequently known as

1260

CASS COUNTY.

the Hank Hubbard farm. Before the
"scare" a party of men, five in number, adventurers,
with Hiram Craney as leader, came to the settlement
and sojourned a few weeks. Afterward, they coveting
one of the claims of Mr. Flower, and others belonging
to his friends, conceived the brilliant plan of
inaugurating another Indian war, so that the settlers
might be obliged to leave the valley and they could
then "jump" the claims.
These parties gave the settlers to
understand that they were going to leave the country,
and it was supposed they were gone, but they returned
shortly in the guise of Indians, and skulking around
the stony cliffs at a distance, succeeded in making
the settlers believe that hostilities were intended.
The settlers, being poorly supplied with arms and
ammunition, held a meeting, and Mr. F. volunteered to
go after the necessary articles if they would gather
the five families into one house, and stand guard
until his return. In his absence these frontier
ruffians tore down his pre-emption shanty, on the
place now known as the Hank Hubbard Farm, and others
with it, then going to the land office in Nebraska
City, made oath, one for another, that Mr. Flower and
others had abandoned their claims. These parties were
then allowed to file upon them, and under the law
there was no redress.
The parties committing this outrage
were well armed, and the settlers did not dare to
resent their actions. They got the land from the
Government, but sold out the first opportunity, and
before long the country was rid of them. Hiram Craney
later went to Utah and joined the Mormons. In the fall
of 1856 Elam Flower commenced building a mill near the
site of the present Clinton Mills, digging races and
getting out stone for a dam. He cut into logs the best
walnut trees he could find, and hauled them to the
mouth of the Weeping Water, about seven miles above
Nebraska City, and ferried them across the river in a
flatboat, where prior to this a sawmill had been
started. He had lumber sawed to use in making an
overshot water wheel, and other timbers for the
mill.
Mr. Flower had come to this section
of country with a reasonable amount of capital, but
finally found that his expenses were exceeding his
income. About this time two young men came into the
settlement, one claiming to have money, and the other
recommending himself as a fine mechanic. Their names
were Fair and Nice. Mr. Flower took them into
partnership, but after several months no money
appearing, and one of the fellows becoming very
abusive and overbearing, he sold his interest in the
business, taking notes without security. There being
no deed for the land, there was thus no opportunity
for placing a mortgage. William Reed and his sons,
coming in soon after, the firm of Fair & Nace sold
the property to Reed for cash, and skipped for
California without paying Mr. Flower.
William Reed & Sons got this
mill in operation in 1861, but did not begin grinding
wheat into flour until two years later. The principal
parts of this structure were later removed to Millford
by Mr. Reed. But to return to the winter of 1866-57,
which was noted throughout the Northwest for its
severity. On the 1st of December the storm commenced,
and for ninety days there was continual frost, without
warmth enough to thaw the snow on the south side of
the most sheltered nooks, only one day in three
months. "Lo! the poor Indian," who would steal horses
and commit depredations in warmer weather, was now in
a starving condition. It was then the forgiving nature
of Mr. Flower asserted itself, and it was noticed by
his neighbors that he frequently sheltered and fed
straggling members of the tribe, until his winter
provisions began to run short. In the beginning of
winter a crust had formed on the snow, and new snow
falling upon this, and drifting by the heavy winds and
blizzards made it impossible to get a team through,
and in many instances deer were caught and killed with
axes or clubs, but as they were almost starved to
death, the meat was nearly valueless.
Over these drifts one day Mr. Flower
took his hand sled and started for Kenosha, twenty
miles away, where had been started a store. He arrived
at his destination after one day's travel, and the
next morning started homeward, his sled loaded with
flour, bacon, coffee, etc. He was obliged to face a
Northwestern driving snow storm and thus tugged along
all day without road or trail to guide him. By keeping
due West, however, with the aid of his knowledge of
the lay of the land, he found himself about four miles
from home just as

CASS COUNTY.

1261

night was coming on. He did not dare
to attempt crossing another ridge, as another blizzard
was setting in. Mr. Flower had to pull his sled down
Cedar Creek, a small stream that emptied into the
Weeping Water, and after considerable trouble
succeeded in finding a cabin that was located near Jim
Sperry's brick kiln. He supposed it was empty, but
what was his surprise on pushing the door open to find
it was inhabited by a widow, whose husband had died
late in the fall. She had living with her two
children, aged three and five years, both girls, and a
half-witted nephew nearly man grown. The widow and
nephew had both frozen their hands trying to kindle a
fire with powder and caps, and some cotton from a
quilt had been tried, but they had failed on account
of so much snow being in the house. Mr. Flower found
the cabin dreary and cold, with two inches of snow all
over inside the house. A few more hours and all would
have been over with these wretched creatures. Mr.
Flower, like all well regulated frontiersmen, had
matches in his pocket and found plenty of wood close
by in the snow, which he brought in and there was soon
a glowing fire, He then shoveled the snow out of the
house, brought in his provisions, and they had a royal
frontier feast all around.
The next day, putting the children
in the feather bed, with the blankets over them, and
leaving part of the provisions in the cabin, he
started out accompanied by the woman, Mrs. Carr, and
her nephew, to the cabin of Mr. Flower. This
structure, only 16x16 feet square, they found upon
their arrival was already full of Indians and
storm-bound white men, in all twenty-two persons. Mr.
Flower and the other settlers got through with that
terrible winter as best they could.
We find the following in regard to
the town of Weeping Water, but Mr. Flower held other
claims under the claim law. In the United States Land
Office at Lincoln is the record of property in the
City of Weeping Water, as follows:
Book A., Page 39 -- (Elam L. Flower,
to the public.) -- Claim Certificate, filed April 24,
1856.
This is to certify that I have
located a claim in Cass County, Territory of Nebraska,
for the use of six individuals for town site. Said
site comprising the following, to wit: Northwest 1/4
of Northwest 1/4 of section 1, town 10, range, 11
East, with other lands, and containing in all 1,640
acres, more or less. File received the 24th day of
April, A. D., 1856. By G. H. Brown, Deputy Recorder of
Deeds.
This was a great scheme, and this
1,640 acres of land was platted into three towns, on
paper, all adjoining and named respectively,
Caledonia, Grand Rapids and Weeping Water -- divided
into shares. But as it was Government land and not yet
in the market no deeds could be given, although some
of the shares were sold for a trifle. A few members of
the town company inaugurated a scheme to commence East
and put the town shares of Caledonia on the market,
which would have been a swindle; but Mr. Flower put a
stop to this at once; and eventually the whole
business was abandoned. There was no town known as
Weeping Water until the year 1880, although the first
store was started in 1867, when Eugene L. Reed, (of
whom a sketch will be found elsewhere in this volume,)
Frank Wolcott and others organized the village of
Weeping Water.
Weeping Water was not formally
organized as a city of the second class until the
first of May, 1888, and it was then found there were
enough inhabitants for it to become a city of the
second class. Its growth and development has been
detailed elsewhere in this work. In the fall of 1888
the inhabitants numbered 2,200, and by the various
additions which have been made from time to time to
its area, it now covers nearly as much ground as the
"paper town" of 1856 did, with the difference in the
number of population. There are now a score or so of
frame store buildings, all occupied, several brick
blocks, hundreds of fine residences, two main lines of
railroad, grain elevators, mills, various industries
and the other enterprises naturally belonging to a
flourishing and rapidly growing city in the heart of a
rich farming country.
Upon the coming of the spring of
1858 Mr. Flower finding difficulty in getting his mill
started, and apprehending it would be a long time
before it would pay, and in consideration of the
dishonesty of his partners, sold out and moved across
the river into Millville, Iowa, opposite Kenosha,
which was then but a steamboat landing, although there
were

1262

CASS COUNTY.

slight indications of a village
being started. A sawmill had been started by Sidney
Treat, and there were about twenty families in the
place. Mr. Mower was soon recognized as a substantial
citizen and in due time was elected Justice of the
Peace; he was also appointed Postmaster, and set up a
grocery store. The postoffice was named Buchanan.
The place where this village once
stood has long been the bed of the Missouri River. In
1860 Mr. Flower returned to this county, taking up his
abode near Mt. Pleasant, where he staid two seasons,
then moved to 4 point five miles west of Weeping
Water. In the meantime he received a land warrant good
for 160 acres, as the reward of service in the army
when he was a boy about sixteen years of age. This was
the southeast quarter of section 35, township 11,
range 13, of Cass County. He laid his warrant, proved
it up and battled with many difficulties for a number
of years -- drouth and far-away market included. Owing
to the expense of fencing his land, which was required
by law, and under the general impression of that day
that there was no use of trying to farm on a piece of
upland, he moved to the land now owned by his eldest
son, G. M. Flower. This was then a ranch lying along
the great overland Government wagon road to the
Western forts and the emigrant road to Pike's Peak and
California, and included the southwest quarter of
section 31, township 11, range 13, of Cass
County. Here Elam Flower turned his attention to
stock-raising, also keeping hay, grain and other
supplies for travelers. In 1865 he began freighting
with one team to Ft. Kearney. After making one trip he
enlarged his facilities to four teams, and with his
three eldest boys, Gilbery Manley, Warren A. and
Clarence P., made several trips to the forts and
Denver. In the spring of 1866, in addition to Denver
he took in Salt Lake City, this enterprise occupying a
period of eighteen months. He entered Salt Lake City
too late in the fall to recross the mountains, and
consequently was compelled with his boys to winter in
that vicinity on the Severe River, southwest of Salt
Lake City 150 miles, and forty miles from any
settlement.
Mr. Flower, however, purchased a
supply of school books before leaving the City of the
Saints and busied himself instructing his boys and
hearing their lessons during the winter in a small
shanty on the banks of the Severe River. Upon the
starting of the grass in the spring father and sons
set out eastward with their teams across the
mountains, Clarence and his father had an attack of
the mountain fever, from which the son soon recovered,
but not so with the father. Although he lived until
June 28, 1872, he was never able to do any work. He
suffered greatly thereafter, although his natural
energy sufficed to keep him off his bed most of the
time. He returned to Cass County in August, 1867, and
lived on the ranch, which began to be settled all
around by homesteaders.
The elder Flower took great interest
in the Grange movement being agitated at that time,
identifying himself with the order and being elected
Master. He also occupied other local offices.
Considering his career, as heretofore noted, it is
hardly necessary to speak of the estimation in which
he was held by the people of this county. He was an
honest and upright man in all his dealings, and made
for himself a record which his descendants may look
upon with pride. It was generally conceded that "Uncle
Elam," as every one called him, had no enemies, and
after his death the last sad rites were attended by
the largest gathering of people ever known in Weeping
Water. Politically, he is a stanch Republican and it
is believed he was the first man in Nebraska to set
about the formation of the Union Club, later known as
the Union League. Of this William Reed was the
commanding officer and Mr. Flower his lieutenant. Mr.
Flower had an intense hatred of anything savoring of
disloyalty to the Union, and on more than one occasion
forced members of the Rebel element to withdraw their
expressions of sympathy with the Confederacy.
As mentioned above, there were five
sons and two daughters. These are all living, all
residents of Nebraska, and with one exception residing
in or near Weeping Water. One son, Clarence, is a
resident of Frontier County. Warren A., the third
child and second son, was born Dec. 10, 1850, in
Brighton. Iowa; P. F., the fifth child and fourth son,
was born May 6, 1855, and these two are among the
prominent business men of Weeping Water.

CASS COUNTY.

1263

Warren A. Flower
was a little lad of five and one-half years when his
parents came to Nebraska, and young as he was he had
already attended school. After that he never saw the
inside of a school-house for years and he only studied
at home a very little until after he was fifteen years
old. He then entered the school at Mt. Pleasant, where
he was a pupil. After the trip to Utah he returned to
school at Mt. Pleasant, attending three months; then
at Weeping Water school a short time, but as his home
was five miles from the village he abandoned his
studies until a more favorable season. When nineteen
years old he resumed his books, but was obliged to
give them up soon on account of the illness of his
father.
Warren Flower after becoming of age,
not satisfied with his lack of education, repaired to
Brighton, Iowa, and making his home with his uncle
attended the graded school there two terms. He would
have continued, but on account of failing health
caused by the climate and close confinement was
obliged to withdraw once more. He then began learning
the photograph business, which he took up readily, and
ere long set up a little gallery of his own at
Richland, Iowa, where he sojourned a short time, then
coming to Weeping Water operated a gallery one winter.
We next find him in Syracuse a few months, but he
finally abandoned photography for the time and going
to Jasper County, Neb., took up a tract of land. Upon
this he operated in summer and made pictures in winter
at a town a few miles distant.
Like his father before him, Warren
Flower, upon reaching manhood, was discovered to
possess excellent qualities as a business man and a
citizen. In 1873 he was appointed Sheriff, and the
following year he was elected Surveyor of Jasper
County, Neb., although he did not qualify, as the
county was new and the settlers few, so there was
little to do in this line. He was also on the
Returning Board of Jasper County at the time of the
election of Zediker, and the adoption of the State
Constitution, when Harmon, a Democrat, tried to steal
the ballots of Zediker, the Republican.
Warren A. Flower was married Jan.
21, 1876, at Plum Creek, Dawson Co., Neb., to Miss
Mary Ann, daughter of Joseph Maycook, at that time
Treasurer of Gosper County, Neb. Mrs. Flower was born
June 14, 1858, at Buckingham, England. The children of
this marriage are Albert Warren, who was born at
Stowe, Frontier Co., Neb., May 2, 1880; and Lilly
Antoinnette, born in Weeping Water Feb. 18, 1894.
Finding the same trouble in Western Nebraska that his
honored father had met with when coming to Cass
County, Mr. W. A. Flower after an absence of ten years
returned to Weeping Water to find it a flourishing
railroad town, the farmers raising fine crops, which
they were able to convey to good markets, a prosperous
artist operating a well-appointed gallery, and other
concomitants of an enterprising and intelligent
community.

ERL
F. FLOWER, fifth child and fourth son of Elam L.
Flower, was born at Brighton, Iowa, May 6, 1855, and
came to Weeping Water, Neb., with his parents, when a
child only one year old. He was left at home with his
mother and two younger children when only a lad of
nine years (while his father and three older brothers
were freighting, on their two years' trip to the great
Salt Lake City), looking after the small herd of
cattle, doing chores summer and winter, and helping
his mother all he could. He was known as "mother's
boy" even after he had grown to be a man. His kindness
toward his fellowmen, and his honest, upright dealing
with all, gained for him warm friends in all who knew
him, far and near. His schooling was very limited, as
he either worked or herded cattle continually until a
man grown. Nevertheless by a few weeks in school and
plenty of home instruction he attained a good
education, pressing onward and upward.
When our subject became of age he
bought a farm near the home place of 160 acres, broke
up the raw prairie, farmed and improved until he got
it in a high state of cultivation, and owns the same
at present date. A few years later we find him buying
and shipping stock from Missouri to Nebraska. Perl F.
has broken up over 1000 acres of wild land in this
vicinity. Therefore he, like his

1264

CASS COUNTY.

father before him, has always taken
an active part when he could do so, to help others,
and has in the last few years induced many Eastern
people to migrate to this new and beautiful
country.
About the 1st of January, 1887, our
subject and W. A. Flower, in company with Dr. Lang,
started a drug store. The following August he bought
out Dr, Lang, and Flower Bros. have since pursued that
business together, and from their widespread
acquaintance, winning ways and square dealing with
all, they control a generous patronage throughout the
surrounding country. He was married, Feb. 9, 1887, to
Miss Cora Olive Bellinger, at Clinton, N. Y., eldest
daughter of James C. and Arminda (Paige) Bellinger, of
that place. She is a descendant of Adam Bellinger,
Esq., Col. Christopher Bellinger, Col. Peter
Bellinger, Capt. Peter Bellinger and Gen. Nicholas
Hercomer, all of old Ft. Hercomer, now Herkimer City,
Herkimer Co., N. Y., found in the history of the
Bellinger and Hercomer families of that place, and
traced back as far as the first settling of the
beautiful Mohawk Valley, in 1725. Thus we find again
the descendants of two noted families joined together.
Cora O. Bellinger was born at Walesville, Oneida Co.,
N. Y., April 30, 1864. She attended select school at
Oriskany Falls for a number of years, and finally
finished her education with it four years' course at
the Houghton Seminary, of Clinton. She came to Weeping
Water with her husband, in March, 1887, and was so
well pleased with this place that she induced her
father to remove with his family, which he did in
September, 1888, and soon after embarked in the
business known as The New York Clothing Store,
Bellinger & Sons, proprietors.

EAL
HARVEY DIMMITT is a prosperous farmer living in
Elmwood Precinct. He was born in Clermont County,
Ohio, Jan. 31. 1845. He has very faint recollections
of that State, and of the journey by steamboat to
Peoria, Ill. His educational advantages were those of
the early schools of Illinois, before the admirable
school system of that State was introduced. At the age
of sixteen his name was enrolled as a volunteer among
the defenders of his country, at the breaking out of
the Civil War. Being too young he was rejected, but he
is none the less deserving of the credit due any
soldier, as it was not anything on his part that
prevented him from taking an active part in the
struggle that ensued.
Mr. Dimmitt and Miss Mary Caroline
Robbins were married Oct. 7, 1869. The lady was a
native of Tazewell County, Ill., and is a daughter of
Jacob and Harriet (Walker) Robbins. In 1877 they
removed to Nebraska, where they settled on 160 acres
of land on section 29, and have made the improvements
which now surround them. Beginning on the wild land,
he has by hard work and diligent application secured a
farm which, in fertility and productiveness, is
excelled by few in the county. He planted groves, and
set out an orchard of choice fruit, of all varieties
best adapted to the climate, thus securing to himself
many comforts, as well as a source of some profit, and
he has projected other improvements, which, when
completed, will make his farm one of the most complete
in the county.
Eight children have been born to
these worthy people -- Wilson E., Edward A., Bertha
L., Charles A., William A. (now deceased), James Roy,
Claudius and Louis. They are at home with their
parents, and each and every one take a lively interest
in the success and well being of the entire family.
The father of our subject was James S.; the mother was
Sarah Walker. The father was born in West Virginia,
near the Potomac River; the mother's birthplace was
Ohio. Our subject represents Scotch descent, received
from the father, and German descent, received from the
mother's side. His father settled in Highland County,
Ohio, then removed to Clermont County, where he was
married. In 1852 he came from Ohio to Tazewell County,
Ill., removing thence to Woodford County, in the same
State, where he purchased land and lived until 1877,
when he came to Cass County, Elmwood Precinct, and
purchased 320 acres of land from the Burlington &
Missouri River Railroad, located on section 29, and
160 acres on section 30. He died, aged seventy years,
in 1882. The mother is now seventy years old, and
makes her home with our subject. A family of five
children were born